It's funny - When I look at the results sheet, it seems like a horror story of an event for me personally, but it just doesn't feel like that at all. It feels like it was a roaring success.
Cars - success
Car to track matching - success
New track - success
Close, clean competitive racing - success
My own driving - suck
Actually, I had a couple of bits of bad luck, tbh, so maybe that's why I don't feel so bad.
Race1
First off, I don't know the difference between "next session" and "next event" :doh: My apologies again gents. Decent start off the random grid, up to 5th on Lap1, 4th on Lap2 (Tom - I was in the pale blue car, and went round the outside of you in T1, but it was more a case of practicalities, you had the inside line and I stayed wide to avoid contact, I was just lucky I got some good grip out there). Followed the Lenno, Amir & Sammy group, roughly on pace, but got thrown out to desktop - not a crash, but like I'd suddenly alt-tabbed, I could still hear the game runningso I tried from memory to guess where I was and get off the racing line. By the time I got back to the game, I wasn't last, but it just felt like it
Luckily the car was OK, but I started pushing to try and catch back up, and twice I'd made good ground up, only to waste it all with a couple of slidey moments. Gah
.
But, as others were also having a few wobblers, I started making a few places up. Hans was driving beautifully in front of me, and he was really unlucky he dropped a wheel on the outside of T1 which just let me squeeze through as he was correcting. Caught up to Dave C. and we had a great couple of laps together, coming up on Tom, who looked like his tyres were a bit second hand as he was wrestling the little Fiat, and we both slipped past on L15. I thought Dave had me covered on the last lap, I was closing a little as his tyres seemed to be going the way of all things, but I got a great run over the hump and into the penultimate corner and closed right up. In the last turn, Dave drifted just wide enough for me to put it up the inside and just about hang on to it.
Race2
Portland was a new track to me, shortish, but quite nice and wide, and I guessed it would suit these quick but very nimble little cars. After the best race of the night for me, I would say I guessed right.
Quallied 6th using the "one-shot" format and got a decent if not spectacular start, had a couple of good laps being stalked by Gary, who got through in the T1 & T2 chicane. Had a bit of a moment in the chicane a few laps later, letting Leszek, Tom & Krzysztof past. Had 3 great laps chasing Tom, managing to get past through the last corner of lap6, and set off after Krzysztof, but could now see Amir & Carlos closing up behind with Tom right on their heels.
The next 10 laps were among some of the finest racing I've experienced @ RD, closing up to Krzysztof, while having to keep an eye behind me as well. Again, it was the last corner where I managed to sneak past Krzysztof, and the four of us were pretty much nose to tail for the last 6 laps. I had my gears set a little shorter than the others (judging the timing of the gearchanges), and so I was able to pull away on some sections, but got closed up on others, so it was never done deal, and the boys behind were flying. Just managed to hold on to it to the end, but what a race that was. :good:
Race 3
I love Castle Combe, chicaned or non, but I chose the Chicaned one for this event as I thought it would make it more interesting in these agile cars. How that would come back to bite me in the rear end.
Again, quallied OK, got a decent start, got up to a comfortable 4th, closing a little on Gary, but he had a big impact in the first chicane, and I had nowhere to go
. The main problem was my head-on nature of the impact with Lenno, I was steering at 2 o'clock to go straight, and on a clockwise track, having a compromise to the ability to turn right isn't ideal. I was pretty much steering by guesswork on all right handers, and so picked up a few cuts, resulting in a Stop n Go, followed by another on the next lap :dance2: More gutted to have missed out on the racing than with the whole coming dead last thing.
So - despite the incidents and accidents that blighted some of the racing, I would have to say I thought it was a cracking night allround.
Yummy!
